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View Full Version : (WIP) Destabilizing the deck gun in SH 5


Rongel
03-04-11, 05:11 AM
I decided to make a new thread about this to get some attention. The deck gun (and the deck gun zoom-view) has been somewhat succesfully destabilized by modders in previous SH-games and I think it's time to try it here. This is propably the best way to make the over-powered deck gun more realistic.

I've been studying the old SH 4-threads and tried to mimic their solutions, but I have hit a dead end. These two threads are a great help. They tell the story of a few brave modders (especially Sammi79 & kv29) who decide to make impossible possible against all odds, and succeed in it! Truly inspirational (:D):

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=117430
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168872

This comment by Sammi79 seems to hold the key to success:

The change involves editing the .dat file for each individual gun model, rearrangeing the hierachy somewhat specifically the camera positions are moved to different parent objects. Then Cameras.dat must be edited to set the actual positions of the deckgun cameras as they are no longer following their original position, also the movecannon parameter "lookathorizon" must be set to false. These fixes keep the zoomed sight level with the boat at all times.

The .sim file for each gun model must also be edited so the speed of the turrets elevation is too low to keep up with the pitch/roll of the boat (0.2 or less), this is AFAIK the best way to negate the gun auto levelling. Now I have already succeeded in 2/4 of the tasks,

1. changed movecannon parameter "lookathorizon" to FALSE
2. changed Deck_Gun_GE88mm.sim elevation to 0.2

But this I don't get, when I change lookathorizon to false, the zoom camera goes on the opposite side of the deck gun, so that I can only see the gunner spinning the deck gun wheel. I need to position the camera on the opposite side, but don't know how! So how to reposition the zoom camera view, any suggestions? Any veterans from these threads lurking around?

By the way, changing the elevation speed much slower already makes the aiming more challenging and fun!

charognard
03-04-11, 06:58 AM
Great news :) Can you disable deck gun by bad weather too in your mod ?

Rongel
03-04-11, 08:48 AM
Great news :) Can you disable deck gun by bad weather too in your mod ? It's still far away from a proper mod, and I'm not yet sure if it's going to work. If somebody knows how to change the camera location, I think it should be possible to make this work as well as in SH 4. But no, this doesn't restrict bad weather deck gunning. You can still man the guns, but hitting anything in a storm is going to be REALLY difficult!

Rongel
03-06-11, 06:04 AM
I see that this hasn't got too much attention :shifty:... Well, I understand that there are more exciting big things happening at the same time. Anyway, as this really bugs me, I ask again help:

How to edit camera position in SH 5?

I just need to flip deck gun camera 180 degrees. Nothing else. Any help is much appreciated!

Bilge_Rat
03-06-11, 02:36 PM
You should check the mods that have done this in sh3/4 to see what they changed. That may give you an idea.

Rongel
03-06-11, 03:26 PM
You should check the mods that have done this in sh3/4 to see what they changed. That may give you an idea.Hi and thanks for reply! Oh yes I've been wasting hours studying SH 3/SH 4 unstabilization mods, reading old threads and so on. This camera problem seems to be totally new thing, nobody had reported it earlier. Furthermore The Goblin editor is different than SH 3 editor, so I can't do all the same things.

What is frustrating is that I even know how to move the camera in the X,Y,Z coordinates but don't know how to rotate it! So close!

Sammi79
03-24-11, 04:15 AM
I've been offline for a few weeks, any progress on this so far :06:

regards,
Sam.

Feuer Frei!
03-24-11, 04:30 AM
But no, this doesn't restrict bad weather deck gunning. You can still man the guns, but hitting anything in a storm is going to be REALLY difficult!
Interesting, i didn't know that you could fire in bad weather :hmmm:
Been in plenty of stormy weather and my deck gun crew have always been washed overboard! Or too scared to fire, with 'battle stations' on and fire free on.
Good luck with this mod, would love to see it come to fruition :salute:

Rongel
03-24-11, 04:22 PM
This is currently on hold :dead:. I managed to destabilize the cannon using lowered elevation value (or stabilize less to be correct), but the zoom view is still magically locked to the horizon line! I will return to this if I have more time and some pointers. It seems that what was possible in SH 4, isn't anymore in SH 5.

I still might do a little "more realistic deck gun mod" which would include this lowered elevation value, new graphics to the zoom view and lowered damage (as some crucial mods double the damage as well).

Rubini
03-12-12, 01:19 PM
Like these ones?

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4315/sh5img20120306185731.jpg

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5153/sh5img20120306185725.jpg

Rongel
03-12-12, 05:01 PM
Like these ones?

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/4315/sh5img20120306185731.jpg

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5153/sh5img20120306185725.jpg

Wowzer! :o

You did it? It works, any side effects?

I still remember all the hours i banged my head against the wall with this... Great work Rubini! :yeah:

Details please :D

Rubini
03-12-12, 05:15 PM
Wowzer! :o

You did it? It works, any side effects?

I still remember all the hours i banged my head against the wall with this... Great work Rubini! :yeah:

Details please :D
No, isnīt working correctly (yet at least). I was able to destabilized it but...or the camera is fixed and just the cannon moves, or the camera moves and the cannon is fixed. I guess that is just a matter to find a best (and correct) cameras nodes sequence(hierarchie)...I was very tired, late night, when i achieve the above some days ago. We can work on it again. I will try to find my files and will post here for our discussion.

Rongel
03-13-12, 03:57 AM
No, isnīt working correctly (yet at least). I was able to destabilized it but...or the camera is fixed and just the cannon moves, or the camera moves and the cannon is fixed. I guess that is just a matter to find a best (and correct) cameras nodes sequence(hierarchie)...I was very tired, late night, when i achieve the above some days ago. We can work on it again. I will try to find my files and will post here for our discussion.

Yes, I think that the hierarchy is the key point. Just basicly a lot of testing...
If I have time I could also look into this, when I first tried this I didn't know anything about modding...

Adriatico
03-13-12, 07:30 AM
Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally, someone has tackled this problem!

I just can't believe that this "immersion breaker" was not in the spotlight of moding community earlier.

Best wishes for your work:yeah:
...and keep us informed on progress.
:ping:

Madox58
03-14-12, 06:56 PM
Interesting thread.

Before GWX 2 or 3? We tested a VERY unstable Deck Gun mod I did.
We turned it down as we felt many would not like the whole feel of it.
It seems your looking for the same effect or close to it.
I'm pretty sure I deleted the files but I'll see if I can find more info for you, or try to remember what I did.

Rubini
03-14-12, 07:24 PM
Interesting thread.

Before GWX 2 or 3? We tested a VERY unstable Deck Gun mod I did.
We turned it down as we felt many would not like the whole feel of it.
It seems your looking for the same effect or close to it.
I'm pretty sure I deleted the files but I'll see if I can find more info for you, or try to remember what I did.

Thanks to look at this too privateer!:up:

THE_MASK
03-14-12, 08:43 PM
Try this . http://i44.tinypic.com/b893xv.jpg

Sammi79
03-15-12, 05:03 PM
No, isnīt working correctly (yet at least). I was able to destabilized it but...or the camera is fixed and just the cannon moves, or the camera moves and the cannon is fixed. I guess that is just a matter to find a best (and correct) cameras nodes sequence(hierarchie)...I was very tired, late night, when i achieve the above some days ago. We can work on it again. I will try to find my files and will post here for our discussion.

It looks like you managed to achieve exactly what I managed in SH4 using Silent 3ditor. The camera is now destabilised, was it done by changing the linking heirachy (or bones or whatever you call them in SH5) of the camera object?

The problem I encountered was that the elevation of the gun itself is (in SH4) performed by the MoveCannon (or AimCannon? i forget) controller which is an .ACT file, and I have neither the skills or knowledge or more pertinently legal right to disassemble this file to see if it is possible to alter this - without this controller the auto elevation is gone but so is the ability to move the gun at all. I settled in the end for a work around from another earlier modder that being setting the rate of elevation so low that it could not keep up with the pitch/roll of the boat.

Check Sobers post he has set the elevation rate to 0.75 - you could also try lower I think I settled on about 0.4 in SH4 but it does then require significant time for the elevation to change when setting range. Also note that although the auto elevation is hampered it is still there and still needs to be taken into account when aiming - my approach was to adjust the camera position so you could see when the gun barrel stopped moving or changed its direction giving me the exact firing time for the set range.

Regards, Sam.

Adriatico
03-21-12, 08:58 AM
Any progress, news.... estimations ?
:ping:

Rubini
03-21-12, 09:39 AM
Any progress, news.... estimations ?
:ping:
Not from me, for now. I'm very busy in RL for some days ahead, but will come back to the issue ASAP.